When Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, millions of shocked fans gathered to grieve a beloved star whose music is universally recognized as timeless. But the outpouring of emotion that followed his death was bittersweet. Dogged by scandal for over fifteen years, the pop culture icon had become untouchable in many quarters, a fact that wounded him deeply. Now, drawing on unprecedented access to friends, enemies, employees, and associates of Jackson, longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor Randall Sullivan delivers a remarkable portrait of a man both naive and cunning, a devoted father whose parenting decisions created international outcry, a shrewd businessman whose successes blew up in his face and whose failures nearly brought down a megacorporation, and an inveterate narcissist who wanted more than anything a quiet and solitary life. Untouchable begins with Jackson’s final four years, during which he plotted his comeback with an album that included collaborations with Will.i.am, Kanye West, and Carlos Santana, as well as a series of fifty megaconcerts for which he was rehearsing until the day before his death. With never-before-reported information about Jackson’s business dealings and the pedophilia allegations that irreparably marked his reputation and firsthand accounts of Jackson during his childhood superstardom with the Jackson Five, Untouchable is a sweeping, thorough and unflinching glimpse into the turbulent life and untimely death of the King of Pop.